Eloquent Model Generator is a tool based on Code Generator for generating Eloquent models.

Step 1. Add Eloquent Model Generator to your project:

composer require krlove/eloquent-model-generator --dev

Step 2. Register GeneratorServiceProvider:

'providers' => [
    // ...
    Krlove\EloquentModelGenerator\Provider\GeneratorServiceProvider::class,
];

If you are using Laravel version 5.5 or higher this step can be omitted since this project supports Package Discovery feature.

Step 3. Configure your database connection.

Use

php artisan krlove:generate:model User

to generate a model class. Generator will look for table with name users and generate a model for it.

Use table-name option to specify another table name:

php artisan krlove:generate:model User --table-name=user

In this case generated model will contain protected $table = 'user' property.

Generated file will be saved into app directory of your application and have App namespace by default. If you want to change the destination and namespace, supply the output-path and namespace options respectively:

php artisan krlove:generate:model User --output-path=/full/path/to/output/directory --namespace=Some\\Other\\NSpace

output-path can be absolute path or relative to project's app directory. Absolute path must start with /:

• /var/www/html/app/Models - absolute path
• Models - relative path, will be transformed to /var/www/html/app/Models (assuming your project app directory is /var/www/html/app)

By default generated class will be extended from Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model. To change the base class specify base-class-name option:

php artisan krlove:generate:model User --base-class-name=Some\\Other\\Base\\Model

Save existing model before generating a new one

php artisan krlove:generate:model User --backup

If User.php file already exist, it will be renamed into User.php~ first and saved at the same directory. After than a new User.php will be generated.

There are several useful options for defining several model's properties:

• no-timestamps - adds public $timestamps = false; property to the model
• date-format - specifies dateFormat property of the model
• connection - specifies connection name property of the model

Instead of spcifying options each time when executing the command you can create a config file named eloquent_model_generator.php at project's config directory with your own default values. Generator already contains its own config file at Resources/config.php with following options:

<?php

return [
    'namespace'       => 'App',
    'base_class_name' => \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model::class,
    'output_path'     => null,
    'no_timestamps'   => null,
    'date_format'     => null,
    'connection'      => null,
    'backup'          => null,
];

You can override them by defining model_defaults array at eloquent_model_generator.php:

<?php

return [
    'model_defaults' => [
        'namespace'       => 'Some\\Other\\Namespace',
        'base_class_name' => 'Some\\Other\\ClassName',
        'output_path'     => '/full/path/to/output/directory',
        'no_timestamps'   => true,
        'date_format'     => 'U',
        'connection'      => 'other-connection',
        'backup'          => true,
    ],
];

If running a command leads to an error

[Doctrine\DBAL\DBALException]
Unknown database type <ANY_TYPE> requested, Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\MySqlPlatform may not support it.

it means that you must register your type <ANY_TYPE> with Doctrine.

For instance, you are going to register enum type and want Doctrine to treat it as string (You can find all existing Doctrine's types here). Add next lines at your config/eloquent_model_generator.php:

return [
    // ...
    'db_types' => [
        'enum' => 'string',
    ],
];

Table user:

CREATE TABLE `user` (
  `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `username` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `email` varchar(100) NOT NULL,
  `role_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  KEY `role_id` (`role_id`),
  CONSTRAINT `user_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`role_id`) REFERENCES `role` (`id`) ON DELETE CASCADE ON UPDATE CASCADE
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8

Command:

php artisan krlove:generate:model User  --table-name=user

Result:

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

/**
 * @property int $id
 * @property int $role_id
 * @property mixed $username
 * @property mixed $email
 * @property Role $role
 * @property Article[] $articles
 * @property Comment[] $comments
 */
class User extends Model
{
    /**
     * The table associated with the model.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $table = 'user';

    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected $fillable = ['role_id', 'username', 'email'];

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsTo
     */
    public function role()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo('Role');
    }

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany
     */
    public function articles()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('Article');
    }

    /**
     * @return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany
     */
    public function comments()
    {
        return $this->hasMany('Comment');
    }
}